Or better yet, if you stumble into a thread that doesn't appeal to your interests, rather than lambast the people who are trying to have a discussion, you can find a thread you are interested in. Don't open your mouth, don't put your fingers on the keyboard, don't pass Go and don't collect $200. Go directly to the 'Back' button on your browser and keep on scrolling.

Of course, now that I know it's become acceptable to ridicule people if I don't like what they are talking about, I'll head right over to the 'What's your favorite anime?' thread and let them know just how infantile their childish little cartoons are. I'd rather watch dust settle than contribute to a discussion about anime.

Infidel wrote:I really don't care what smokers do in private, or encourage them to stop for their own good. But it's not a personal vice, it affects everyone around them. So it should be regulated to the user's private residence and special smoking areas. Just as you can't go releive yourself wherever you want, because it stinks, it pollutes, it's unsanitary, the same reasons apply to smoking.

Im sorry about your allergy (spelling?) And although i agree with you to some extent Infidel, there are other things that affect other people:

The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas directly affected by human activities, has increased by about 30% since the beginning of the pre- industrial era around 1750 because of the combustion of fossil fuels and changes in land- use practices. During the same period of time human activities have also increased the atmospheric concentrations of other greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide, and regional pollutants such as sulfate aerosols. Increased atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases tend to warm the atmosphere, while increased concentrations of aerosols tend, in some regions, to cool the atmosphere. The Earth's climate, which has been relatively stable during the past 10,000 years is now changing. The Earth's surface temperature this century is as warm or warmer than any other century during the six hundred years; the Earth's surface temperature has increased by about one degree Fahrenheit over the last century; and the last few decades have been the hottest this century. In addition, there is evidence of changes in sea level, glaciers are retreating world-wide, and the incidence of extreme weather events is increasing in some parts of the world. Computational models that take into account the observed increases in the atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and aerosols simulate the observed changes in temperature quite well, suggesting that there is a discernible human influence on the Earth's climate.

Yes smoking is disgusting and Yes i do smoke. However i think people need to also look at the whole picture rather than just slating smoking when carbon dioxide emissions from cars are destroying the planet- and that will affect everyone not just people who are around smokers.

Oh and Yes i do know that carbon dioxide is emitted from lit cigarretts, but did you know that cows passing wind releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than cars do.

Um... I think you guys are missing the point. Smoking isn't bad because it ruins the atmosphere. Smoking is bad because it causes lung cancer, bronchitis, breathlessness, bad breath, yellow teeth, gum disease and heart failure. If you don't mind that, smoke all you want.

Maybe I should have never made the off-topic forum in the first way ^^

Daniel / Zeo

Na, just lock threads that are obviously attempting to start a controversy. A lot of threads have been like that lately.

Rule three of this forum is to not offend people. If we can tell that people some people are going to be automatically offended by a thread due to the content, then just lock it. While some benign threads sometimes get out of wack, some start out that way and should'nt be allowed to continue and gather momentum.

Last edited by Infidel on Tue 06.06.2006 1:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Generally, it appears to me that noise in forums and usenet and elsewhere consists of either trolls or posts by self-appointed net cops.

I have not seen any posts that I thought were trolls here. The only problem I see is meta-posts, people complaining about the thread itself, as opposed to either not reading the thread, because it's uninteresting to them, or contributing to the topic.

It's probably quite hypocritical, but I can't stand seeing people I know or care about smoke. Same as I wouldn't let my friends, say, light their hand on fire. However I do smoke, albeit VERY lightly (about 1 a month) and usually cigars. Oh yeah, and the appeal for me (in the past when I smoked about a pack a month) was just to give me something to do during my breaks at work.

Ndoki wrote:It's probably quite hypocritical, but I can't stand seeing people I know or care about smoke. Same as I wouldn't let my friends, say, light their hand on fire. However I do smoke, albeit VERY lightly (about 1 a month) and usually cigars. Oh yeah, and the appeal for me (in the past when I smoked about a pack a month) was just to give me something to do during my breaks at work.

If smoking bothers you, you may want to avoid coming to Japan. An awful lot of people here smoke. Many restaurants don't have no smoking areas (and some of those that do are small enough that they may as well not have them).